‘Don’t blame me!’ cut-off graphic above:
Yeppers; the bern’s the ‘antiwar candidate’; we’ve seen it everywhere. ‘Bernie Hearts Drone Assassinations, but with One Proviso’, September 7, 2015, café babylon
Yes, Bernie; America ‘should have the strongest military on earth’ if one believes that the Empire needs to grow and thrive, and that the Global War on Terror is an admirable venture. How hideous it is to hear you to trumpet an alliance with the tyrannical Saudi state, though, and pretend that it’s all down to dollars and cents. And oof, how easily you accepted the agitprop framing of formerly embedded with the troops Martha’s questions, my stars! Watching your eyes dart back and forth like a pinball machine showed that you were on the defensive for being called some idiotic peace dove. Unbelievable.
I won’t even go into his implied or stated positions on Russia, Ukraine, I/P, NATO expansion, R2P Libya, and more, but Margaret Kimberly doesn’t mince her words one bit.
Now it’s possible that the Bern might show up after these folks deliver ‘almost 50,000 ‘Draft the Bern’ signed petitions to his DeeCee office. But sheesh; what’s he been doing lately? Still sheep-doggin’ for the Dems.
‘Bernie Sanders promotes illusions in the Democrats at Detroit town hall meeting’, Tom Hall, 26 August 2017, wsws.org
“Senator Bernie Sanders spoke Tuesday before a crowd of more than 1,000 people at a town hall meeting in Detroit. The event, where Sanders appeared alongside long-time Democratic Representative John Conyers, focused on Sanders’ “Medicare for All” campaign, which proposes to expand the federal health care program for the elderly into a universal, single-payer health care program.
Since the Democratic Party debacle in the 2016 elections, Sanders has become the de facto leader of an effort to prop up the party—to which he does not formally belong—and overcome the (correct) popular sentiment that the Democrats are completely indifferent to poverty and social distress, which was greatly exacerbated under eight years of pro-Wall Street policies of the Obama administration.
Sanders and his supporters have seized upon the issue of health care in order to bolster the Democrats’ flagging credentials as a “people’s” party committed to a program of social reform. In part this is to salvage the electoral fortunes of the Democrats in 2018 and 2020, but the more important goal is to impede any break by working people from the whole structure of the two-party system.
While polls have shown that Sanders remains the most popular politician in the country, the composition of the crowd suggested that his post-election efforts have had a limited impact among broader layers of the population. While reporters for the World Socialist Web Site encountered some students and young people, the capacity crowd was dominated for the most part by those with a direct interest in efforts to salvage the Democratic Party as an institution: trade union functionaries, aging 1960s-era radicals, and pseudo-left groups oriented towards the Democrats, who promoted Sanders during the primary elections last year. Despite the fact that the meeting itself was held in a predominantly working-class area, workers were largely absent.” [snip]
“Sanders has long been associated with economic nationalist appeals, blaming workers in China and Mexico for the impoverishment of workers in the United States, and identifying the interests of American workers with those of American corporations. He has frequently co-sponsored bills with right-wing Republicans attacking legal immigration and “free trade.” In the aftermath of Trump’s election victory, Sanders declared in a televised town hall that he was prepared to work with him and “with anybody who wants to work together to develop a trade policy which tells corporate America they have to look beyond their greed.”
As usual, Sanders said nothing about foreign policy, despite the fact that Trump announced a major new troop buildup in Afghanistan the night before. His claim to be a “socialist” is belied most directly by his longstanding support for America’s imperialist wars, beginning with the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, which he seeks to cover up by avoiding public discussion of foreign policy as much as possible. Sanders’s support for wars fought in the interests of American capitalism is closely tied to his economic nationalism.” [snip]
“The town hall meeting showed that Sanders is attempting to prop up the Democratic Party under conditions of mounting popular disaffection with the entire official political system. He reiterated his calls to improve voter turnout in order to ensure higher returns for Democratic candidates, and called upon younger people attracted to his campaign to run as Democrats in local elections. In response to an audience question calling on him to found a new “people’s party,” Sanders responded, “I don’t want Trump around for another four years. I don’t want Republicans in control of the House and Senate. I want Democrats to open the door; I want Democrats to be the party not of corporate interests, but of the working class.”
Sanders ran for office as an independent (at least in name) for decades, while caucusing with the Democrats. Now he abandons even the fig leaf of independence out of concern that any breach in the political monopoly of the Democrats and Republicans would lead to the emergence of a mass political movement of the working class that escapes the control of bourgeoisie.”
Nice job sanitizing Martin Luther Kind, Jr., bern. Oh, so many retweets and likes, but oh, the subtweets…mmm, mmmm.
You’d do well to remember radical MLK, though.
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
hellow wendye,
Spoke for four minutes with our good LGBTQ US Senator Tammy Baldwin two weeks ago come Monday when I went to an advertised event, three minutes from my home. Thought it was a listening session, but it was a campaign fund raiser. 250 people showed (huge turnout for this area), nobody under 55 yrs old. We were evicted from the town hall for over fire-code capacity and I helped move the PA system and caught her as that was being plugged in outside in the park. She assured me that the bern was going to be introducing Health Care for All pretty soon now as I assured her that if her, “political party,” didn’t focus 24/7 starting last Nov on HCfA, there’d be no chance of overturning one GOP seat in the Wisconsin state senate or assembly or gubernatorial races.
She went on with the second half of her speech about saving O-don’t-Care. I was never holding my breath for the bern. Best to you and yours.
my, my; look who the north wind blew in; how fine! how much moola did she gather to herself, nonquixote? j/k, it’s a shhhhh thing. i didn’t include it when i’d clipped tom hall’s bit and bobs, but he said wsws reporters heard similar rubbish.
“Sanders and Conyers presented a universal, single-payer health care system as a logical extension of the “advances” supposedly made in access to health care under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. “Thank god we were able to beat back these ugly and horrific Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” Sanders declared. “But what we have to recognize is that even with the gains of the Affordable Care Act … today 28 million people still have no health insurance.”
In reality, the Affordable Care Act was a reactionary piece of legislation aimed at bolstering the profits of the health care and insurance industries and corporate America more generally. It included more than $700 billion in cuts to Medicare over 10 years, and sought to shift the cost of health care coverage from the employers and the government to working people.”
Sanders and company were unable to totally paper over the devastating impact of the policies of the Obama administration, which oversaw the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history, has had on broad layers of workers, particularly youth. The meeting began with testimonials purporting to show how the Affordable Care Act has made a positive impact in people’s lives.” (jayzus)
but yeppers, the bern and his true believes have claimed that *any day now* he’d bring his version of health care for all. and i wish the same for you, my friend; sorry to be such a scrooge w/ emailing.
i need to go take care of chores, including prepping a few gallons of basil for shock n freeze before mr. wd comes home from the grocery stores and farmers’ market. back later.
“Baited Breath” – too cruel you are WD…
There is an AfterBern in progress. Over 200+ challengers to Dem incumbents: five times the usual amount. Bernie already has the D base AND a majority of the independents. If the Berniecrats can push the Progressive Caucus membership towards 150 the insurgents will have both the base and the office holders in Congress (and elsewhere). Both will be necessary to budge the DLC dominated hierarchy. Then convention battles can become real. Might still end up with an effective third party (the only way they have formed) by walking out of one of the majors with the all the goods to create a new winning major party. cf.
WhigsRepublicansah, lemoyne; how long ago was it that you’d said to me (close to): “but i never expected the bern to be attacked from the left!”? ;-) but as to your opening “Baited Breath” – too cruel you are WD…” are you pinging an objection to my “his devotés have sardines in their mouths hoping to bait him into being their fearless leader”….or that i was riffin’ on bern’s bait and switch performances?
or indeed that i hadn’t gone w/ the bard’s ‘bated breath’ instead?
The Merchant of Venice: Shylock, the moneylender, points out the irony of Antonio, the merchant, coming to him for a loan after treating him so poorly in the past:
“Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;
“Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn’d me such a day; another time
You call’d me dog; and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys? “
might be equally applicable, i reckon. but oooh, i like the ‘AfterBern’ metaphor a hella lot. now if memory serves, and usually not, thd often cites the number 175,000 as to the number of votes needed to win a house seat. may they all have good fortune, and if elected, i hope they stay true to their campaign promises, as long as they’re at least ‘progressive’, whatever that actually means any longer. the long huffpo piece by way of the ‘we are now a supermajority’ touched on war, but only ‘we are against ‘invasive wars’, whatever they consider those. alleged r2p scenarios like the bern? funding and arming proxies of the US and nato? but srsly, only a dyed-in-the-wool cynic would laugh at the possibility of creating a new party, yes? but of course i admit to being both cruel and cynical; sorry.
but i can’t make out why you’d brought the video, not to be a clueless thick-wit once again. explain, please?
As to the berners claim against the Dumbocrats that All Your Base Belong to US (labor, youth, people of color, UMC liberals, left-leaning independents…) – long before there was Youtube that video had millions of views. Even then in 2001or2 the featured 8bit video game was long Outdated and lordy what a horrifying translation from the Japanese. All Your Base is a techno classic and a real groundbreaker in the view+share genre, at least for me. Just realized All Your Base does fit the more than one aspect of the disconnect between the DLC and the BS Revolution.
Move that Zig! ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.ha.
Thanks for the edumacation on using the word bated … I am almost as old as you and you must have spent as much time reading as I have breathing and taking up space. It’s why we are here, of course.
Fear not my criticism of ‘baited’ vs ‘bated’ – I love ANY pun, and therefore must take the punishment. I do not see the grand conspiracy – if Bernie is a sheepdog then he’s a bad one – he barks and has bit deep into the pretense that Dems stand for anything except some mutable, wonkishly vague policy point here and there.
The mother of all war crimes is starting the war – I would [initially] be happy to settle for a policy of Don’t Start None Won’t Be None. That can carry a majority even in our militarized country. I think we need universal health care and other elements of “an economy that works for all of US” to get people to take care of each other here before the foreign policy of US becomes enlightened and gentle over there.
apparently their claim didn’t prove to be so, but as to the bern’s sheepdoggin’, see him in detroit, and as i remember it, he campaigned for her.
continuing/expanding wars is the same as starting them, but that’s just me. as to the bate v bait, what i once knew usually is gone, unless there’s an image in my brain to save it. and yep, i’d had to look it up again to refresh…
as to this: ” I think we need universal health care and other elements of “an economy that works for all of US” to get people to take care of each other here before the foreign policy of US becomes enlightened and gentle over there” if i get your meaning, i disagree , as they should go hand in hand. isn’t that what we are all stardust’ and a revolution of values, consciousness and bonds w/ our fellow humans globally is all about?
night; gotta be out for the night; obligations are callin’ me. ‘higher ground’ = ‘woke’, imo.
I agree, they must go together. Antiwar, antiracism/sexism, climate change, safety net and single payer are all parts of the same whole, and i think maybe the identity politics crowd embody the most extreme cluelessness to the fragmentation plaguing the entire left, from nominal to radical.
The first wave feminists got it, all the suffragettes saw equal rights for women as inextricably intertwined with the cause of peace.
I was telling someone about Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress just prior to WWII. She cast the sole vote against declaring war on Japan, saying she felt that a woman should not vote for war. And she was lauded for her bravery by some of her fiercest opponents. “Human Smoke” is an incredible book I’ve read three times. It’s so fascinating I couldn’t resist.
But yes, I lost respect for Bernie when he supported US actions in the middle east and wanted closer aliance with S. Arabia, and more arms to Nazi Ukraine. I didn’t know till recently he’s supported all major wars. But there was a time I’d vote for him as lesser of two evils anyway, before I completely realized the interconnectedness of it all and the futility of voting in general in this day of Diebold machines and operation crosscheck.
I’m so starved for any smidgen of hope sometimes I’m ready to eat shoe leather.
Oh, and here are some of my favorite lines from a “liberal” website dedicated to fighting misogyny and espousing tolerance, during the Clinton frenzy leading up to the primary and election:
“Anyone who voted for Trump, or Stein or Johnson, fuck you. Just fuck you.”
“Well, Chomsky might be right about manufacturing consent, but I’d rather have that than to live in a totalitarian society. At least were free here.”
“Screw these anti-globalists! There’s no reason to hate people from other countries.”
“Criticizing ‘central banks’ is a dog-whistle for anti-semitism.” (This last one is right up there with “anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.”
These are the uber-educated, tolerance preaching, Slate and New Yorker reading, latte sipping, religiophobic, scientistic denizens of the bourgeois, condescending, bubble-dwelling pseudo-left and I never saw so clearly how different they are from me till this last election.
Expecting a different result : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE DEM IN$ANE !
“…but as all of you know…we may not get there immediately”, lol x 6. the consummate wall street comprador.
Don’t know if you meant this result from all the tweets but I am ROFLMAO. It must be the tweet format that does it, no?
The litmus test on Medicare for All will be whether it gets rid of deductibles and co-pays along with all the the other nickel-and-diming clawbacks that impoverish the already impoverished. Yes, the $2000 bill becomes a $300 bill after discounts and Medicare payments but it takes 3 years to pay off $300 on Social Security income.
Bernie Sanders is 79 in 2020. I’m not seeing another run. And right now I’m not seeing who exactly has the skills to take on a post-Trump Presidency that does what needs to be done with national security (repeal the National Security Act of 1947 and the secrecy of the intelligence community and covert operations that allows impunity.) Also run an effective economic policy, the ramp up of effective infrastructure, and the ramp-down of lobbying. And then there is Title 26 of the US Code – Internal Revenue. And then shifting the personnel levels in the executive branch and uniformed military to reflect these changes. Know any native-born Americans over 35 who you would trust with that?
As for parties, the current ones are campaign crutches from a quainter era that pool marketing expenditures and have none of the political speech and mobilizing functions of earlier eras. Madison financed his own peach brandy jug in the Orange County VA voting place in his day.
Parties very much are “factions” in Federalist Papers terms. And factions are what Scott Peck would call an escape from the chaos of discovering differences within a community, one of every social group’s predictable crises. Political parties institutionalize factions at a certain point in history and the party leaders function as the individuals in Scott Peck’s observation of community processes:
Pseudocommunity: This is a stage where people pretend to have a balanced and open friendship with one another, and cover up their differences, by acting as if the differences do not exist. Pretending differences don’t exist, and pseudocommunity, can never directly lead to True Community; so the goal is to maintain open communication and a commitment to celebrating diversity so people can spend as little time as possible in this “pretend” stage of community.
Chaos: When pseudocommunity fails to work, the members start falling upon each other, giving vent to their mutual disagreements and differences. This is a period of chaos. It is a time when the people in the community realize that differences cannot simply be ignored. Chaos looks counterproductive but it is the first genuine step towards Community building.
Emptiness: After chaos comes emptiness. At this stage, the people learn to empty themselves of those ego related factors that are preventing their entry into Community. Emptiness is a tough step because it involves the death of a part of the individual (ego). But, Peck argues, this death paves the way for the birth of a new creature, the Community.
True Community: Having worked through emptiness, the people in Community are in complete empathy with one another. There is a great level of tacit understanding. People are able to relate to each other’s feelings. Discussions, even when heated, never get sour, and motives are not questioned.
I find the bit about emptiness a little superficial for what is a pretty slackjawed experience of no exit.
And true community, like the Sixties (Ha!) only lasts long enough to slip back to pseudo-community.
Marshall McLuhan (remember him?) described the fallacy of looking at everything through the rearview mirror. There is the caution of fighting the last war. Whatever Bernie Sanders and the Democrats are doing is still mired in chaos that the GOP is only beginning to enter. There is a general realignment beginning in US and UK politics, at different time paces.
Mueller in the US and BREXIT in the UK (and the EU if BREXIT actually happens) will be what ends the chaos phase and goes to the “Whaddawee do now?” stage of slackjawed emptiness. The people with the practical model for recreating political conversation and political action will frame the contours of that new community. You can bet that the PTB are grubstaking some pliable and very smart people to try to figure that out right now (cough, New America). So why can’t us peanuts in the peanut gallery give a go of it too?
Here’s a first conumdrum: if a community (that is a political majority with openness to additional support) is not a party (a faction), what exactly is the social form of politics and political transformation? I’m only figuring that the social form is what dictates how ones vets leadership here. Social form first, then consideration of what is to be done and who is to do it. Prejudice that the social form must be a party form (or at least a strongly factional party form) is what appears in the current rearview mirror.
The only deadline on transformation is when it occurs in its own time (pardon the reification of what is really the emergent effect of a bunch of actions by lots of people who may not even know each other.). If the prize is the Congress, the 2018 activity should already be in place. The 2020 activity by early 2018. Only if it’s ready. If it’s response to collapse, we’ve a ways yet; grassroots relief in Houston is working without a lot of religious or political labels. Be ready to handle rolling local and regional collapses. A movement that moves can move either way–or both.
We are heading for “interesting” times.
glad you were ROFLYAO, amigo; ne, too. sometimes a storify really brings the sense of a corner of the zeitgeist, doesn’t it? i ♥ them. on eclipse day, there was an image of a total eclipse one w/ text noting that this is the “draft the bern” imagery! (blot out the bad actors, i reckon.) kewl.
yes, the devil’s in the key details, and i know you’ve memorized them. but as to the bern’s plan, margaret flowers sent this out today:
“At the start of the August congressional recess, Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he will introduce a senate bill this September “to expand Medicare to cover all Americans.” Since the election, the movement for improved Medicare for all, has been urging Sanders to introduce a companion to John Conyers’ HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, which currently has a record 117 co-sponsors in the House and is considered the gold standard by the movement.
Recent reports are that Sanders’ bill falls far short of HR 676 in fundamental ways. In fact, Sanders’ bill is a multi-payer system not a single payer system. His bill reportedly would allow private insurers to compete with the public system, allow the wealthy to buy their way out of the public system and allow investor-owned health facilities to continue to profit while providing more expensive and lower quality health care.”
but i dunno that conyers’, et.al.’s bill is up to the standards you’ve mentioned, but all of us will be billed for it, if i understand correctly. and my SS is a grand total of $484 /month, however they got away w/ that rubbish accounting after a life-time of working. but sure, we’d all need to pony up little for good coverage for all.
great mini-prescription, but hey, the good chase iron eyes in down with the super-majority. did you see his photo? but the other #drafts are of course (anti-imperialist save 4 stria, bonded to narenda modi hindu racist) tulsi gabbard and nina turner, head of the #people’s revolution, who now has her on show on TRNN. bring back peach jugs, i say!
your explanation of scott peck and community, pseudocommunity, chaos, then true community building leading to arguments w/ feelings expressed, etc. i hadn’t ever read, but how interesting a construct. guess that’s the notion around “tell us your stories”, isn’t it? and of course right off the bat it takes folks who still have the genes for empathy for their fellow brothers and sisters, but that’s a whole ‘nother discussion.
“You can bet that the PTB are grubstaking some pliable and very smart people to try to figure that out right now (cough, New America).” hmmmm. pliable and convincing, at any rate, demagoguic (sp?) in some cases might rule the day, which is my biggest fear. it’s not even clear to me that actual Lefties want to assume the mantles of power. god’s blood, when will be do as switzerland does and have cabinet members revolve into the presidency? or even something more sane and workable than that?
as far as your laugh two graphs, i cheated by reading i know who shot jr’s comment in email: works for me. we do not deserve this once-glorious big blue ball of a planet. but slo-mo death for most has been in the works for a long time now, hasn’t it? yeah: “Houston: we have a problem”. and 1200 dead in the environs of bangladesh. how many elsewhere? how many millions dead by war, how many slo-mo deaths in war diasporas? fuck war and the masters of war and authors of of the planetary citizens’ immiseration. it didn’t have to be this way! would kurt vonnegut now offer…”and so it goes.”?
Slow mo death has in deeds large and small been going on for a long time now …
Let’s kick back a little while on The South Lawn y’all … Hmm … The Revolution Will Not Be Voted On … indeed. Still think it’s an
REvolution that’s called for and in progress all around.By definition the Kali Yuga IS exciting.
fascinating concept; thanks, lemoyne. i’d never heard trudell speak on the subject of ‘spiritual perception of reality’ v. ‘religious perception’. but learning to love (in one sense, anyway) what you fear to stay alive was so true in the cases of both the mormon and catholic churches in amerika, wasn’t it? convert or die (even when ‘living’ meant enslavement at the missions in california. sorry i didn’t grasp the south lawn stuff; compromised and one-track brain, i’d reckon. and this morning i’m even more full of burns’ vietnam documentary. “in war there is no single truth.”
Three cheers wd, what an inspired piece of prose. And TD, thanks for education on Scott Peck, great food for thought, but your musings on how to form a true social movement as opposed to factions is beyond my skill set.
I’ve had some success in getting people who think they’re right-leaning to see that banks, corporations and deep state militarism are the real enemy. I see a possible role for me as building bridges between groups of confused people, but those elitist liberals are in my experience as unreachable as the “race realists” i used to argue with on Taki’s mag. Try telling either of those groups of people anything and expect at best semi-polite condescension!
“Be ready to handle rolling local and regional collapses.” hell, the US might not survive Hurricane Harvey. (one can wish, right?) as the wsws notes today, the enviro impact in TX, b/c all the petro-chemical crap…well, hey look world! capitalism makes another gigantic dead zone in the planet.
anyway, if the 1st issue in a politico’s plank is not the immediate abolition of US nuclear weapons, I just assume they are another iteration of the common turd floating in the US political privy, maybe a bit more chock full of this or that corn pone or beer nut. I mean, while it’s full steam ahead w/the annihilation of Russia, we are supposed to be happy that the Bern is for single payer? tens of thousands are exposed to cholera in Yemen, wonder what the Berninator’s stance was on St. Barry’s (or W’s) arms deals w/the Saudis? I remember hooking up on FB w/an old high school friend, die-hard, sorry, not die-hard, but undead, liberal and i’m like, “dude, the man (the black messiah) destroyed Libya, doubled down (of course) on Afghanistan, assaults VZ, the drones, etc., etc.” and he’s like, “yes, I was troubled by those things about him,” troubled that the second coming of MLKj had a lot more guns & explosions & dying & wailing than he expected. troubled. but then, he said, look at ACA…
wtf do you say to these people? how about: you just took a petty ass cheap bribe to look the other way at genocidal levels of killing. cheap, filthy whore. (sorry I know this is crude & tasteless, but this is how I feel, me in my safe space, about the Obamaphiliacs & Bernstormers):
part I for now: oh, fuck me; sanders supports ‘aid’ to both israel and saudi arabia, although remember when he’d had the huevos to say that ‘saudi arabia should get their hands dirty’ and fight isis in the battle for the soul of islam? as if the sauds’ hands weren’t fucking dirty enough in yemen already? ha: hunting for evidence of his anti-palestinian stance, it brought up kit o’conell, then still Bernie Sanders Stance On Israel Is More Of The Same Ole, Same Ole at mintpress news:
‘Bernie Sanders Stance On Israel Is More Of The Same Ole, Same Ole’, july 2015
“Sanders made headlines in August, when a dialogue with pro-Palestine human rights activists at a Vermont town hall boiled over into frustration after Sanders chided Israel for its actions rather than condemning its many war crimes. The interaction occurred near the end of Israel’s brutal assault on the people of Gaza last summer, during which Israeli soldiers deliberately targeted hospitals and U.N. shelters and killed thousands of civilians. Last July, Sanders joined the rest of the U.S. Senate by unanimously voting to support Israel’s actions.
The conversation was captured on video and widely circulated. Writing in April for Bustle, Chris Tognotti summarized the breakdown in communication” (with video) laters on part II; thanks for the emo rant, j.
on edit: but srsly, once you’d mentioned turds (feces?), any apologies were unnecessary. ;-)
I feel exactly the same.
great stuff to respond to, but best laid plans and all that…. ‘lazarus’ decided he wanted a shower, so his sister and a couple friends brought him over, saying that ‘he can’t do stairs’. only way to avoid them is thru the garden gate, down the incline, up the flagstone walkway…and into the house where the shower lives.
to say that it was a 2-hr three-ring-shower circus would be understating it. but i did offer lazarus a cane and a crutch by way of his sister. ‘nope, he’s too vain for a crutch, but he’ll give the cane a go’. eeeep, a crutch is so much more stable; kewl to be vain when falling over is ‘ thing’.’
best laugh of the week: she offered, ‘yeah, but falling over is so much more natural ‘/s. laters, wallygators.
Here is my Labor Day Contribution, somewhat old fashioned but today’s Truth-Telling and where the non-existent Progressive Caucus in the Senate, continues apace, tells me that both Sanders and Clinton aren’t familiar with the Chicano’s or the Native American’s “long game.”
Oh Hell! And Where Do I Start?
Back in 1985, the Chicano Movement issued its Agenda of Unmet Needs, and of the 10 elements addressed was the formulation and implementation of the Academic-Military Draft. To wit, a high school graduate or a high school dropout could enlist for a 3-year term, and while engaged, 50% of time would be spent on “soldiering” and the remaining amount to time would be spent in a classroom and where college-level general studies were conducted.
After three years and at separation, each person would hold in one hand, the Honorable Discharge and in the other hand, each person would hold a two-year college degree and equivalent to an Associate of Arts Degree in General Studies. Consequently, Self-Discipline, Hard Work, and Ambition, would become the starting point for our nation’s “equality at the finish line.”
And if one harkens back to the Bush/Cheney administration, the implementation of this Academic-Military Draft, today, we would have a young population of over 30 million millennials under 35 years of age, with each being a military veteran and for having accrued a four-year college degree. As such, Common Sense would dictate that colleges and universities would be standing in line to ‘recruit’ these former enlistees and where Affirmative Action would not be on today’s esteemed Roster of Characteristics for Enrollment. In short, the decision-makers would adjust the requisite use of scholarships and other related tangibles and intangibles for insuring that these military vets-students would become outstanding successes.
Now, white America knows about the Academic-Military Draft and has since 1985, and which begs the question of an “unmet need” –still borne—of an unacknowledged Systemic Continuation for more Criminal Stupidity, albeit, a Quiet Segregation.
Jaango
hey, jaango; thanks. i admit to believing that everyone should be able to get free college tuition if minimally qualified, yanno, as in the costs of two new mega floating destroyers would cover it. but hell’s bells, how many GIs never ever got their promised free tuitions anyway? grrrr d-grrrrr. and how many black and brown, red, and poor white folks are still using the military as a de facto jobs program (accompanied by epic signing bonuses and even larger re-enlistment bonuses); i shudder to think.
‘non-existent senate progressive caucus’; wonder why that is? no senator ever created one? but aren’t you a viet nam vet? i’v just been reading a bit about ken burns’ new documentary, and reckon that i’ll post some outtakes of reviews (wildly disparate, fortunately), but reading in snatches causes me to believe that it’s a hella propaganda piece.
ha! labor day; i’d forgotten, but we seem to have celebrated it correctly: worked our damned selves hard all the live-long day. anyway, i’ll try to get that diary up soon as i can. life here right now is weird as hell and full of extra chores for a neighbor in dire need.
Wiki on Bernie, AGAIN : 5/26/16 Clinton (Mook) e-mail – “FWD : Sanders’ criticism – This isn’t in keeping with the agreement. Since we clearly have some leverage; would be good to flag this for him. I can send a signal via Welch; or did you establish a direct line with him?” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwb5mexcYHg ). Teh Bernster pre-emptively ‘answered’ that he was in collusion with DEM ! “Who knew?” The “Rich” KNEW !
arrrgh; i fell asleep after four minutes, so i don’t even know what he’s on about, even w/ your cliffs notes. but here’s the wikiTweet under the video. if it helps…anyone else?
theme song for the sandernistas, the berntroopers (apply liberally to Liz “my heart is in Tel Aviv” Warren also):
the question the libs resolutely refuse to ask, cuz they’ll start sounding like a tea party member, is: why do so many “poor” people think Big G is out to screw their lives over royally? when the answer is simple: b/c the “social services” of the gov’t, at all levels, is there to do 3 things: 1) reinsert bodies into the capitalist machinery, 2) failing that, experiment w/drugs & meds on this populace, 3) create a Kafka-esque nightmare of bureaucratic delay, indifference, incompetence, or outright vicious malice or punishment (take the kid away & charge the parents cuz the parents are using illegal m.j. oil to help the kid w/his muscular dystrophy. yeah, social services are our friends. just like the schools & prisons.)
the lib has to ignore the brutality and so they become like yesterday’s Bill Bennett conservative, but w/a metrosexual, Tom Friedman kind of tinge: the poor need a money management seminar, time management skills, they can be LGBTQX & interracial b/c libs are cool w/that, but really they do need Bennett’s “Book of Virtues” for character formation, but in a sort of libby, prep for college finishing school + computer training kind of way. in their world, cops don’t have goddam quotas of how many peeps they are supposed to lock up in a month, cops don’t do things like just toss a baggie of drugs in a sleeping homeless person’s lap just so Officers Bacon Grease & Donut Hole can get a drug arrest this month. nope.
and let’s face it: nobody is comfortable w/the prolific breeding of the unwashed. just thinking about how these fat dirty people do the mechanics of getting it on is almost enough to make one consider celibacy. why aren’t they working on their GED’s instead of rubbing against each other in those awful port-o-potties? clearly they do not respect theyselves. (think “these people” will get access to the new gene therapy, so they can weed out the autism or whatev from their sickly babbies’ genes? lol. what is the probability that eugenicist programs develop out of such therapies under capitalism? 100%?)
Bernie: “good gov’t can be your friend.” yeah, that’s why those good gov’t libs like Obama & Hillary, when in office, pressed for some kind of security, reinforcement, removal (or, one could wish, disuse), for all the oil & chemicals, the tons & tons & tons of it, just sitting around on the gulf of mexico waiting for a hurricane to scatter its leukemia all over the place. what’s the gene therapy for enduring Hurricane Harvey? how much money do you think the Bern will go for to just hand to Chevron, Exxon, Haliburton, etc., to “rebuild”? eh, the average schlub barely hanging onto his or her shack or trailer can just take out a loan, right?
lol on the squierin’, cool hand. “You see ’em comin’ at you every night, Strung on pretension they fall for you at first sight, You know their business, you think it’s a bore; They make you restless, it’s nothin’ you ain’t seen before…”
but holy hell, tom joad. i’d told you earlier that you needn’t hold back on what you really think; wish you’d taken me at my word. ;-) srsly fine rant, and i’d add two things: i did see a headline claiming that it was the Red side of the aisle who’d prevented any…whatever in toxin alley in the houston area, and also a headline somewhere saying that my fave big box fundie teevee preacher joel osteen said that those victims of the hurricane…shouldn’t fucking act like victims. oh: three: that some poll said that the approval rating for congress is down to 15%, acing out even herr hair.
were the libs applauding the search of the russian embassy? stooopid question?
oh, and jezum crow; i’m so sorry that this place is periodically inundated with porn of the most racist kind. you outta see the phrases i have to type into the blockade list. really harshes my mellow. dunno why ‘askinet’ doesn’t kick it out as spam in the first place; mebbe i need to pay them more?
Oh no, racists know about this place? That’s like dumping garbage in a wildlife sanctuary. Thanks for weeding it out. Is nothing sacred?
But it gave me an idea for a painting: Many-armed Goddess Kali tailored for America: unleashing klansmen and skinheads, maybe goddess with trump hair, holding the heads of JFK, MLK and Malcolm X, slavery, prisons, corporate logos and lots of money, maybe fat people copulating in port-a-potties in there too.
Sorry to be such a chatty cathy tonight, too many great comments i couldn’t help myself.
actually, it’s worse; they’re selling racist porn, ye gods and little fishes. glad you hadn’t seen it; mainly those who ask to receive all comments on a particular diary via email (there’s a box to check) will have seen them. dunno why word press’s ‘askimet’ spam service allows them thru. maybe they want more of my $$$$?
ack on the painting imagery. i do know i’ll never catch up on your many comments w/ so much afoot here, but i’ll try as i’m able, okay?
Don’t ever feel obligated to reply to my comments. I’m tossing them in here as i feel moved but i know you have a lot going on, and so do i. I’m a little in awe of you and other commenters. I’m used to being the person in the room with most knowledge of history but i feel like low man on the totem pole here. I’m content to absorb what knowledge i can like a sponge and toss in my two cents here and there. ;-)
Racist porn though, omg! I’ve heard about holocaust porn, apparently it’s big in israel. Pretty sick.
He didn’t turn up, or even at least bother to send a representative with a message to read out to the attendees. #FeelTheBern
why am i not surprised, andrew? #whatAclassAct but hell, he finally introduced his bill yesterday. wonder how it compares with conyers’ h676, and what margaret flowers reads in it?
welcome to the café; do come back again. especially when i’m outta the doldrums and post something new…or another author does. ;-)
for the sake of posterity: genevieve leigh’s ‘The “People’s Convergence”: The pseudo-left entreats Bernie Sanders to lead “People’s Party” at wsws sept. 16 offered a scathing indictment of the festival. she quoted a number of the luminaries who’d indicated that reforming the democrats was part of the plan, but that nick brana had let the cat outta the bag: “…when he said that what “our movement is lacking,” making it possible for “the Democratic Party to dismiss us,” is because we lack “leverage.” He added, “The case that we have made with Draft Bernie… is that the best way to reform the Democratic Party, if you believe that is possible, is to start a new party”—a remark that produced applause from all the panelists.”
i tried in vain to find the photo of the life-sized cardboard flag-draped bernie holding a check for $163,349, it’s fantastic. but not only was #feelthebern there to accept the moolah and 44,000 petition signatures, no one was there. out to lunch signs or closed for the day? #Pfffffffft.
here’s the executive summary of the bern’s medicare for all bill, but it’s hard not to wonder if it won’t prove to be a wedge issue leading to another round of ‘oh, dismal left! we must elect democrats, there is no alternative! plan, accident, who can say? did he ever actually introduce the bill?
on edit: apparently he and his cosponsors introduced it on wed., but the huuuuge news was that ‘even max baucus’ was signing on; i don’t see him in that list.